Determination of effectiveness of pasture improvementproject of Epçeli village in Çarşamba district of Samsun province

This research was conducted to determine the impact of improvement and management applications on botanical composition, yield and grazing capacity of Epçeli Village Pasture located in Çarşamba, Samsun. The botanical composition has been consisted of 51% legumes (10 species), 13% wheat (4 species) and 36% other families (10 species) in the beginning vegetation measurement. After improvement applications, the botanical composition has been shifted to 20.4% legume (12 species), 30.5% wheat (8 species) and 49.1% other families (26 species). Improvement applications have not shown an effect on the proportion of decreasing species but increased the proportion of increasing species (14% to 25.4%) and decreased the proportion of invasive species (63% to 51.6%) in the pasture. The pasture improvement practices have not affect the soil coverage rate of species, pasture health and condition class. The hay yield, grazing capacity, forage crop cultivation and production amount has increased significantly. The improvement applications have increased hay yield of pasture from 135 kg da-1 to 423.3 kg da-1, and the grazing capacity from 39.6 AU to 124.3 AU. It is seen that the pasture improvement and management practices have markedly increased the all over performance of the village pasture.